Easter Bunny

 

Stratton meets the Easter Bunny!

I don't think he was impressed!! He wouldn't smile for anything!

Our little vampire. . .

I know that last pic is blurry, but you can see his 4 most visible teeth. He has his lower fronts, and top I's and this weekend one of his bottom I's popped out and both the top fronts are also just starting to come through! I will be glad when he gets the top two. When he smiles he looks like a vampire. It's so funny. I think by this time next month he will have at least seven teeth! He's going to be ready for a steak before long!! He has been fussy a lot lately but who can blame him! It must be hard cutting all those teeth at the same time!

In other Stratton news, he is no longer a "sit still and play with a toy quietly" baby. Nope, he is now an official loud and rambunctious boy. He will not sit still unless he is asleep! He wants everything within his reach and when he cannot have it, he gets mad. [Ex. at church on the back of the pew there are: songbooks, pencils, guests/member stickers, guest/comment cards. . .all things he cannot play with and all things that he wants. So, the battle begins. It usually ends with us having to remove all these unattainable objects where he cannot see them!].  He loves to "sing" in the car. We have noticed that as soon as you start the car up he starts jabbering and singing, loudly. It's pretty funny. He also gets loud in restaurants and church. Pretty much where ever there are people that are not paying attention to HIM. haha! He is also on the brink of crawling. . .I am not getting overly excited because I know the game changes once they start crawling. I will be happy to see him learning something new and seeing the change, but not ready for the rest of it!

Bye, Bye March

March is almost over!? It doesn't seem possible! It just seems like Christmas was yesterday and here it is almost Easter! But it hasn't felt much like spring since we haven't had but a few nice warm days so far. I am looking forward to the warmer temps and sunnier days! I have got to get Stratton to the mall this week to have his picture taken with the Easter bunny. .  .just another thing on my "to-do" list that hasn't been marked off this month!

This past weekend went by WAY too fast, as they always do. Saturday morning I got up early, I didn't intend to but I had a cold and couldn't sleep! While I was eating breakfast, I got a text from Amber (about 7:30am) that said they were headed to the hospital! I sent her a quick message back and told her to keep up posted!! After Jarrod got up and we got around we headed to Searcy to pick Stratton up, and on our way there we got a phone call from my mom saying that Nanny had fallen and they were headed to the emergency room. We went ahead and went to Searcy and visited with Jarrod's mom for a bit before heading back home. I never got another phone call or message from Amber, so when we got home to unload the car before going to the hospital I checked my facebook and to my surprise Amber had given birth to "Klaire" at 9:30 am!! I was shocked!! Man, that was fast!!  It was about 4:30 or so by the time we got to the hospital. Turns out, Nanny had broken her ankle and by the time we got there they were doing surgery. So we decided to run downstairs and check on Amber and John and the new baby! When we got there John had little Klaire laid up on his chest, she was fast asleep! So, Sweet!! I can't get over how little she is, and yet Stratton was a pound less than she was when he was born and I can't remember him being that small! I got to admit, I got the baby bug.  . . but it didn't last long! ha!! Nanny came through surgery just fine. She is still in the hospital and we aren't sure when or if she will get to come home. I assume they will move her to Health South Rehabilitation, soon. But who knows? Sunday was a pretty laid back day, we went to church and I still wasn't feeling good so after church we came home and after a quick bite of lunch I took a long nap! I got up about 3:30 and we got around and went by the hospital to check on Nanny before church at 6pm. After church we went to Firehouse with some friends and Stratton was a mess!! He was "talking" so loud!!

Several weeks ago mom and I had talked about going to Memphis to go to SteinMart, we SO miss our SteinMart that closed last year!! We had decided to go on Monday, since it would be one of my last weeks off (more on that later. . .) and my mom was off. We ended up leaving late, no surprise with a baby, and didn't leave till almost eleven. We got to Memphis, ate at Bahama Breeze and after a little bit of hunting found SteinMart. I got a couple of dresses, two shirts and a new pair of sandals! I haven't bought that much stuff for my self at one time in a LONG time!! I was surprised that they didn't have any baby clothes!! Mom was bummed that she didn't get to buy Stratton anything! haha! I was glad that she was with us to help with Stratton. He normally loves the stroller, but he wasn't a fan of it as much yesterday. We were home by 5pm, so it wasn't that long of a day but still a trip to Memphis with a baby is tiring! 

When we got back Jarrod had the 4 wheeler out washing it up. So since it was out, he decided to take Stratton for a quick ride down the street. He said that if they had rode much longer Stratton would have fallen asleep! They stopped and visited with some neighbors before making it back safely (whew, not that I was worried. . haha: )

Long Week & Random Pictures

This week has been SO long. Even though I was home on Monday and Tuesday and then Stratton went to stay with Jarrod's parent's Wednesday it seems like it has been the longest week. I guess that has a lot to do with the fact that we have all been sick and are not sleeping well. I will be so glad when everyone is well and back to normal! Jarrod is still pretty congested, but he is getting better. And Stratton seems to be feeling much better, too. If the pictures that Margie has been sending me are any indication, he is all smiles! I think the cough suppressant/decongestant medicine that they gave him makes him hyper! Has anyone else had this happen?  

The things we will do to keep a fussy baby happy, right?!

He will suck this medicine dispenser dry! He seems to really like the pink antibiotic. All I have to do is stick it in his mouth and he goes to town!

I don't know if I mentioned it before but Stratton as learned some new tricks! He can wave bye-bye (when he wants to. . .haha) and has learned to clap! I noticed Tuesday night we had Wheel of Fortune on and when the contestants clapped for each other, Stratton clapped, too! He is such a smartie!! You can just say "Yay! Stratton!" and he will clap for himself! This is all funny till he starts doing it in church, huh?! He is also stuck on the "B" sounds. He hasn't mumbled "momma" in weeks! He says "Baa" a lot. It makes since, we do use a lot of "b" words! Baby, bottle, bite, boy, book, bear, bug, bye-bye, boo", ect. . .He is just getting to big and so smart! In two weeks he will be 9 months old?! That's just crazy!!!

Sick guys

Today is the first day I have been out of the house since Friday! Wow! I feel liberated! haha! Saturday, I was at home because of Kayce's shower.  Sunday, Jarrod and Stratton were both sick so we stayed in. It was cold and rainy, not a good day to be out with a sick baby. Monday, we got up and took Stratton to the doctor. He has a sinus infection. They put him on antibiotics and cough medicine. Then Jarrod went to the doctor after that and he has a sinus infection and probably an ear infection, too. He is on antibiotics, and taking Mucinex. Poor guy, he has slept in the recliner twice, once with Stratton, too. It's hard having both of them sick at the same time! Jarrod took off Monday and after he got back from his doctor appointment he went to bed and slept. He never takes naps, so I know he must have felt really bad. I had planned on going back to work Tuesday and take Stratton to Kayce's like usual, but he had a melt down about the time I was blow drying my hair. I know more than picked him up and he quit crying and went to sleep! When I tried to put him down he woke up and started screaming again. So, you can imagine what my hair looked like drying on it's own! I then decided to just stay home all day with him. All he wanted was to be held. . .All. Day. Long. I sat him down twice so I could use the bathroom and he screamed the entire time. Very uncharacteristic of him! He would take a bottle and then fuss a little before going back to sleep. I could just tell he felt bad, poor baby. Today he is at home with Jarrod's mom. She is on spring break and offered to watch him since Kayce has a dentist appointment today and couldn't keep him. Hopefully, if he does well today Margie will take him back with her and he will get to stay with them for a couple of days. He sounded better this morning, so maybe the meds are kicking in! Unfortunately, my throat has been hurting since Monday. . . seriously, haven't I been sick enough lately?! And my stomach issues are much better, still having some pain but it's bearable for the time being. I will try to go back to the doctor in a few weeks if it doesn't get better. This has been such a long week and it's only Wednesday! C'mon weekend!

Kayce's baby shower

We had a shower for Kayce on Saturday. It was mostly family and some close friends. Little Miss Laney got lots of Pink! I hope the doctor is 100% sure she's a girl! Saturday turned out to be such a nice day! The kids played outside in the yard after Kayce got done opening her gifts.  It was a little on the windy side but we stuck a hat on Stratton and he was good to go. It was a busy day, but so much fun. I love having a house full of people!

Kayce had lots of help!

Christina made more cookies! So cute!! Pics don't do them justice, they were amazing!

She also made these as favors, itty-bitty baby feet cookies!

Mom made this "Lemonade" cake, yummy!

We had so much food, I ate way too much!

Cooper brought a new toy that he picked out for Stratton all by himself! How sweet is that??

This picture makes me laugh. Stratton is 8 months old and Cooper is 2 yrs old. There is only 2 or 3 pounds and 4 or 5 inch difference in the two!

Isabella and Alexandra are such good baby sitters! Stratton just loves them. . .and their long hair!

No Surgery!!

I had an appointment with the surgeon, Dr. Degges, this afternoon and he did not recommend surgery at this time! He said that he felt like the symptoms I have been having were not typical of someone with gallbladder issues. Yes, I have gallstones, but many people have them and don't even know it! He really felt like my symptoms might have been from IBS and maybe a stomch bug. There are countless stomach virus' going around right now. I am feeling so much better this week, so I was happy to hear his opinion. He was super nice, and when he found out that I had cancer as a child and was treated at Children's he wanted to know all about it and then discovered that he was actually doing his residency there in '84 & '85 and he went back in '87. So, he was more than likely around during some of my time at Children's. He was curious about my doctors and of course I couldn't remember any besides the ones I had follow-ups with over the years (c'mon, I was only 5!). He did pretty much confirm the belief my mom has had that I do not have an appendix. She was sure that it was removed during one of my surgeries. Dr. Degges said it was standard procedure to remove the appendix from a child if operating in that area, as a precaution back then. So, that's good to know! He also wanted to see my scar, which was weird.  . . but understandable. I guess there aren't many of us that had that surgery (23 years ago!) and have lived walking around. Plus, now days I bet the scar for that particular surgery is itty bitty and mine goes from one side to the other!

I was really pleased with the appointment. He said if I continued to have problems, treat it as IBS, and if I started having any of the typical symptoms of a gallbladder attack then we would revisit the issue then. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

Whirlwind weekend!

We had a pretty good weekend, it just went by too fast! Friday night we went to Isabella's basketball game. It was their last one of the year and boy they played hard! They lost, but it wasn't because they didn't try! We went to Steak Escape and hung out with the Gibson's some more after her game. Stratton loves those girlies!! 

I had intending on sleeping in on Saturday morning, so I took a pain pill when we got home Friday night. I was out of it!! But Jarrod got called out at about 5am, so my day didn't start as planned. Then as predicted the sun never came out, and the temperature stayed cool. So I had to rethink the "springy" outfits I had previously considered us wearing for the pictures.  Which was a major bummer. Back to jeans and long sleeves. ugh. Jarrod got home just in time for us to get ready and get on the road. We were supposed to meet Daisha at Shelby Farms at 5pm. At ten till we were SITTING on the bridge still! Traffic was horrible and since they are doing so much work in that area it's down to one lane!! We got to Shelby Farms about 5:20ish and Daisha did a great job finding dry spots to take our pictures. It was so cold though!! Luckily I had stuffed Stratton's knit hat in my bag as we were running out the door! He needed it! We had him huddled up in a blanket with his hat on between shots. And the crazy geese tried to eat me! Seriously! I really dislike birds  and I think the geese and ducks knew it, they were out to get me. Daisha, heroically ran them off! We were pretty much the only ones at the park and she was still taking pictures when we were "kindly" (haha, really rudely, actually) ask to leave by a cranky old man in a truck with a megaphone. Not kidding. Did I mention that we were the only ones there? I hardly think that was necessary! After we left there we ate at supper at Red Lobster before heading back to Jonesboro. Then mom and dad came and got Stratton, so we wouldn't have to take him to them Sunday afternoon.

After church we met with our friends forever group for lunch at El Acapulco and then while Jarrod washed the car, I went to bed and took a nap! We had tickets to see Jeff Dunham Sunday night with some friends at the Convo at 5pm. It was sooo funny. We had a great time! I was afraid that he wouldn't have any new material we hadn't heard since we watch him all the time, but he was full of new jokes and was hilarious!

I am feeling much better, I don't think I am back 100%, but I feel so much better than I was. Unfortunately, Jarrod hasn't been feeling as good. He is struggling with a kidney stone and there isn't much he can do besides drink lots of water and take pain killers (which isn't much help since he can't take those during the day while at work). It has been a little over a year since his last episode, and it has bothered him on and off a little over the last few months, so I hope he will get over this soon!

Here are a few pics from the weekend. . .

Kendyll & Allyson (Brandy's girls) and Stratton at the office on Friday. He is so attention deprived, can you tell?

Trying to avoid a pre-meal melt down, I put him in the toy basket. . . he LOVED it! I think I could have left him in there for awhile! I may have to move it into the kitchen! ha!

Saturday night after our long day. Can you tell Jarrod was worn out?? Stratton was sporting his cool pj's and funny matching hat.

Family Pictures

The day didn't go as I had expected (there were quite a few "inconveniences") but we got there and had a great session with Daisha, she is just so good!!

She has the preview on her website. . . www.dLifeful.com.

Hopefully, she will have them all up in a few days!!

The dreaded appointment

Just a quick update. I have an appointment with a surgeon next Thursday (March 18th). I am assuming that he will want to schedule the surgery for the following week. Which puts me having surgery right in the middle of Spring Break! I guess that might actually work to my advantage, Jarrod's mom and sister will be off that week and so will a couple of my teacher friends! I shouldn't have trouble finding a babysitter that week! 

I am actually feeling pretty good today (not great but better than I have been)! Just trying to stay away from foods I know will trigger an attack and drink lots of water. I have had too much grilled chicken in the past two weeks, I might actually be getting tired of it!!  I am soooo ready to be able to bite into a big, greasy, cheeseburger again! And have a coke!!

I would appreciate your prayers, I know it isn't a major surgery, but I am really nervous!! I guess having a baby, someone who depends on me, makes me a little more aware of the risk of complications.

Great, Gallstones.

I have been having a lot of stomach pain and cramping in the last month or so. I went to the Dr and he thought I was experiencing symptoms of IBS (mainly colon spasms). So, he put me on a pill for my acid reflux and a pill to relax the colon. It did seem to help, but the pain never went entirely away. I went back to the Dr. for a follow up a week or so later and he was concerned about my weight loss (about 6lbs in a week. . . ) and he felt like if it were IBS I should be much better after taking the meds for a full week. Then he ordered blood work and scheduled me for an ultrasound on my abdomen. I had the ultrasound this morning and it took about an hour. They told me it would be about 48 hrs before I got the results. I was worried after I got out of the ultrasound, something about the look and mood of the person doing the ultrasound made me concerned. I tried not to think about it, but it's hard waiting! Luckily I didn't have to wait long. The Dr.'s nurse called me about 12 o'clock to tell me that they did find gallstones and that they are going to schedule me an appointment to see a surgeon. Great. I am glad that they found out what is going on with me, but I am really nervous about surgery. I hate thinking about being off work and unable to take care of my baby! My great-grandmother on my mom's side, my grandmother on my mom's side, my mom and I am pretty sure my Aunt Judy have all had their gallbladders removed, so maybe it's hereditary?! I don't know, but I am glad I didn't cancel my Aflac Insurance! And I also have a substantial credit balance at NEA since I prepaid when I was pregnant and I didn't deliver at NEA. So, that will hopefully help some. I am definitely getting my money's worth out of my insurance policies this year! I have no idea when my appointment with the surgeon will be, they are supposed to call me back with that information later this afternoon. Please say a little prayer for us, it's going to be tough on Jarrod, and while I know he can handle it, I hate when I can't "pull my weight" around the house and with Stratton.

Playing outside!

It was SOOOO nice yesterday! Stratton and I ran some errands and played outside! And that comforter from college that I have almost thrown away several times came in real handy yesterday!

[he looks like a little man]

[not a fan of the hat at first]

[sweetest smile]

[is he cool or what?!]

[keeping an eye on Taki]

[what a face! He's trying to get my camera]

Amber's baby shower

 

Alexandra's 6th birthday party

I can't believe she is already 6 years old?! It doesn't seem like it's been that long ago when she was Stratton's age and size! Her family party was Friday night at Uncle Brian & Christina's house. It was decorated with Littlest Petshop stuff. I am SO out of the loop when it comes to toys! We got her a add on room for her zhu zhu pet house? And I only know what zhu zhu pets are because everyone was wanting them at Christmas and it was onthe news! What ever happened to Barbies??  I just don't get toys anymore. Stratton by the way LOVES Isabella and Alexandra, and Isabella is such a good little babysitter. She will carry him around and talk to him and play with him. I have a feeling she is going to be doing quite a bit of real babysitting for us in the years to come!!

 

[Coop is playing with the doll house! haha]

Another busy week

Last weekend was a busy one! Friday night we went to Isabella's basketball game, Stratton is her biggest fan! He even has a "Go Isabella" shirt he wears!

We went to Cooper's 2nd birthday party Saturday night. I can't believe he is two already?!

Then Sunday we went to Hickory Ridge for our bday lunch with the Wilson family. My mom cooked lunch and made Jarrod a chocolate chip cheesecake and me a strawberry cake! Monday afternoon my mom came up to Jonesboro to watch Stratton so that I could run some errands. I am trying to get everything in order for the shower at my house on Sunday! I am having a hard time getting it all together, I have been sick a lot lately and it has really been interrupting my busy life!!

This week has gone by really fast! I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, I am hopeful that they can figure out what is going on with me and get it fixed!! Then Alexandra's bday party is tomorrow night! Saturday I plan on being busy cleaning, decorating and getting ready for the shower on Sunday! And the shower is Sunday at 2pm. I wish I got a break, but it looks like next weekend will be even busier! We are getting Stratton's pictures made in Memphis with Daisha Sheets, the photographer we used for our christmas card photo, and I am so excited. We are doing them at Shelby Farms, so it should be a lot of fun! Then Sunday Jarrod and I along with several other couples have tickets to see Jeff Dunham Sunday night! I am really excited about that, too!

Funny boys

If you don't usually read my cousin Kayce's blog, you've gotta see this post of Cooper and Stratton. . .it's just too funny!